Why does the Panama Canal have canal locks while the Suez Canal doesn’t have any?
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In the Panama Canal, ships are lifted 26 meters by locks. The significant majority of this height is simply to avoid having to dig 26 meters more down for the entire length of the canal. (Just because the Isthmus of Panama is narrow, it doesn’t mean it is all at approximately sea level. It isn’t.) Digging the canal was “one of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken” according to wikipedia, even at the depth it was dug. Making this work requires a water source 26 meters above sea level (to fill the locks) which obviously exists in Panama. In contrast, the Suez Canal is all at sea level and it was feasible to make it that way.
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